In the fall of 2020, local audio recordist and musician Alan F. Jones waded into the cold waters of Curley Creek with a microphone in hand and the goal of capturing the “acoustic fingerprint” of a Kitsap salmon stream. The resulting recording is intimate and specific; a soundscape with all the nuance of a landscape…
In Land Labs, students make lifelong connections with the natural world
Mushrooms and salamanders were catching students’ eyes all day long. A woodpecker fluttered past. Tree frogs were croaking in the distance. Deep in the forest at Grovers Creek Preserve, the rain wasn’t so bad. But these moisture-loving organisms were thriving in the gloomy weather. That wasn’t exactly what we had come here to study. But that’s the magic that’s possible during Land…
What’s So Special About Dead Trees, Anyways?
For the past 3 months, GPC’s stewardship team has been creating wildlife habitat on our preserves through a procedure called girdling. Our goal is to create snag and den trees, features that are relatively rare in many of GPC’s evenly-aged forest preserves. In older forests, standing dead trees (snags) and logs are common and provide…
How much do you know about Olympia oysters?
For Logan, it was a dream come true. He was bursting at the seams with excitement when he talked about how he wanted to become a marine biologist. Now he had a chance to be face-to-face with a professional restoration ecologist from the Puget Sound Restoration Fund (PSRF). On this sunny September morning, Logan got…
Shoreline Geology at Misery Point
At the end of August, 24 GPC members and neighbors gathered at the Misery Point Preserve near Seabeck for our second installment of the Walk and Talk series. Hugh Shipman, a retired Department of Ecology Coastal Geologist of 30 years, walked us through the glacial history of the bluff and present-day erosion and accretion processes…
A Weekend of Stewardship
It was another busy weekend for conservation and stewardship up and down the peninsula! The weekend started early on Friday morning, when GPC’s stewardship team led a work party at the Klingel-Bryan-Beard Wildlife Refuge. We got a ton of support from YouthBuild Kitsap to make this event possible, and we’re so grateful for it. This…
Hard Work Pays Off at the Day of Caring
Lots of people were sheltering from the heat last weekend, as temperatures skyrocketed up to extreme heights. But Friday wasn’t just a hot day – it was also the United Way Day of Caring here in Kitsap. Thanks to the strong partnership between Great Peninsula Conservancy and the Clear Creek Task Force, we came together…
Before & After: Restoration at Hahobas
GPC’s Hahobas Shoreline Preserve has had a facelift. The cabin that afforded former Boy Scout members a phenomenal waterside viewshed for over 60 years has been removed. Although the cabin is no longer, the shoreline view of the Olympic mountains remains remarkable. Come visit, take a seat at the picnic bench, and revel in the…
Land Labs Investigates Ecosystems at Curley Creek
Sierra Kross, Land Labs Education Coordinator AmeriCorps VISTA, guest posts on the inaugural Land Labs fieldtrip at GPC’s Curley Creek Tyner Preserve, where many students met face-to-face for the first time after a year of virtual education! GPC’s Land Labs program aims to partner with local public schools to provide hands-on science projects that meet…
Public Access at Filucy Bay Preserve
Last month, Great Peninsula Conservancy hosted our first volunteer event since the pandemic started… can anyone really believe it’s been a whole year? To kick things off, we created a public access site at our Filucy Bay Preserve. Filucy Bay Preserve protects 99 acres of intact, high-value estuarine nearshore, saltmarsh, riparian forest, and estuarine shoreline…